Data Visualization and Google Data Studio Workshop

In March of 2016, Google announced the Google Analytics 360 Suite. Among this new offering of products is Data Studio, available in a free and enterprise version. Read more about Data Studio on our blog.

Armed with a basic understanding of Google Analytics, this class will give you the opportunity to take it to the next level and make sense of your organization’s data. From the foundations of visualization to the specifics of using Data Studio’s advanced tools, you will learn to create impressive, polished reports in one of Google’s newest products.

Data Visualization and Google Data Studio Workshop

This course focuses on the free reporting tool, Data Studio, and visualizing data from Google Analytics and beyond. Experience with programming or graphics programs is not needed. Carefully balancing theory and practice, you’ll spend most of the day in an interactive and collaborative workshop and will leave with professional, completed reports for your website!

This course is designed for marketers, analysts and anyone who relies on communicating actionable data. Google Analytics data will be used for this course. You do not need to have your own Google Analytics account in order to participate, however, we do recommend attending at least the Google Analytics 101 course and if possible, the Google Anayltics 201 course as well. No need to be a Google Analytics expert, however knowledge of key concepts along with metrics and dimensions will be enough to use the data in meaningful ways.

A laptop with WiFi capability and Google Chrome is required for the workshop portion of this course.

Things You’ll Learn:

Principles of Data Visualization

We’ll start the day discussing basic elements of reporting – What is the specific goal of your report? Should this be high-level or more focused? Think about the story you’re telling and how you can effectively tell your audience. We’ll give tips and takeaways for how to begin your reports before ever opening a web browser.

Even though it’s part science and part art, you don’t have to be “artistic” to do visualization. Thanks to a variety of web tools, virtually no concept is too complicated to put into picture. We’ll cover different types of effective visualization and discuss which ones should be used and when.

Google Analytics for Reporting

Now that we’ve talked about visualizing data, what exactly should you be putting into those graphs and charts? What options are available with the Google Analytics interface, and when should we look to a more advanced solution? Finally, let’s take a look at what aspects of Google Analytics can be used for Google Data Studio.

Using APIs for Visualization

What’s an API? Well, they are about to be your new best friend! We’ll go through how you can use APIs to get more data than just what the Google Analytics interface provides. There are many visualization tools out there – we’ll compare and contrast different options for visualization and discuss when to use the APIs.

Demo & Workshop

Now we’ll dig deep into the Google Data Studio Demo Walkthrough, putting everything we’ve learned so far into practice. The class will move through the guided workshop together, introducing the different tools and elements in a hands-on fashion. You’ll connect to Google Analytics, summarize data, and create an interactive report designed to answer specific questions.

Takeaways and Benefits

Each attendee will walk away with materials they can use beyond the length of this workshop, including physical handouts, a digital version of the slides, and reports that you’ll be able to adapt and use with your own website’s Google Analytics data.